The world is increasingly complex, instrumented and virtual. There’s vast amounts of information about consumers and the factors that influence their behavior that simply didn’t exist in the data warehouse era. Here, we take a closer look at how all this data will affect retail when it comes together with recent technology trends.

By placing the shopper at the center of decision making, manufacturers can better collaborate with their retailer partners to address the inefficiencies of trade spend—one of the largest costs of doing business.

With so many DMP vendors fighting to stand out, it’s no surprise that many marketers aren’t able to truly differentiate the competing solutions. And to be fair, from an eagle’s eye view, I don’t know that there is a way to.

Online grocery, which currently accounts for 3%-4% of total grocery sales in New Zealand, continues to drive growth, and we expect that growth to accelerate in 2019 as retailers meet rising consumer demand with the continued rollout of their e-commerce programmes.

Modern marketers have a number of tools to drive growth in the competitive environment which are supported by data to make confident decisions—like pricing, promotion, assortment and media. But when we talk to marketers about growth, no lever is cited more often than innovation.

With rising consumer uptake across e-commerce categories, online FMCG growth is accelerating across the globe. In fact, we estimate that online FMCG growth will accelerate four times faster growth than offline sales in the next five years.

When it comes to growth, it’s hard to ignore what we’re seeing in emerging markets. In fact, they’re currently generating two-to four-times the FMCG growth of developed markets. But just because the big picture boasts big opportunity doesn’t mean capitalizing on the right opportunities is easy.

What do dental chews for pets, adult incontinence undergarments and sweetened light beer have in common? On the surface, absolutely nothing. A closer look, however, reveals that each solved a specific "job to be done."

As the e-commerce channel expands, the future success of brands will be significantly affected by how successful they are online. As increasingly time poor consumers seek convenience and on-the-go purchases, online sales of FMCG will gain more importance.

Around the world, consumers are looking for a taste of the good life. And it’s not just those who are wealthy. Sales of products in the “premium” tier are growing at a rapid pace. In fact, the growth of the premium sector in many markets is outpacing total growth for many fast-moving consumer goods categories.

Retail players have long believed that large-format stores will eventually take over the landscape, but today’s reality disproves the “bigger is always better” myth. Although large stores still account for 51% of global sales, smaller channels are growing sales up to eight times as fast their larger counterparts.

Most of the customer data companies gather about innovation is structured to show correlations rather than causations. Yet after decades of watching great companies do poorly at innovation, we’ve come to the conclusion that the focus on correlation is taking firms in the wrong direction.

What causes a consumer to pull a product into their lives? Simply put, we bring a product into our lives because it meets a need or desire. That’s the crux of Jobs Theory: doing a job that needs to be done.

We’ve become so accustomed to our fast-paced lifestyles that it’s even crept its way into how we consume food. This is especially the case when you look at breakfast. So what does the future of the most important meal of the day look like?

Brands armed with new products have always rushed to be first to market, as first movers often establish a stronghold that can be difficult for later entrants to break into. But being “first mover” at the expense of being “best mover” can often lead brands to competitive disadvantage.

Growing a brand isn’t easy, especially for those in in crowded categories. But even the most established categories change over time, and even categories that appear stable may be one critical innovation away from awarding one brand a significant long-term advantage.

For many companies, cost reduction efforts become an endless downward spiral. As soon as one cost reduction program is completed, it’s followed by another. It’s a dangerous cycle, but it’s one we know how to break.

As the world collaborates on the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, good data are critical to the world’s ability to set goals, generate plans and measure our collective progress.

In modern retail, the use of promotions has slowly escalated to become a now-standard practice that has resulted in a shared reliance among retailers and manufacturers, but decent returns are increasingly hard to generate. So knowing which categories are more or less sensitive to pricing changes is essential for driving growth.

A core element in increasing share of wallet is understanding and responding to local consumer needs. It makes sense then, that differentiation from your competition could be an important way to build a competitive advantage. So what are consumers looking for?

Mature brands will find themselves in a broader range of situations than new ones. When it becomes clear that your established brand needs investment to grow your circle of buyers, how do you know which path will work best for you?

As multinational companies continue to expand into new markets, often providing access to a greater range of products for local consumers, are local companies getting lost in the shuffle? Not necessarily so. In fact, many local companies are thriving.

No matter where you live or who you are, dirt and grime are inescapable facts of life. As such, we all need to clean—and we spend a significant amount of time keeping our homes and clothes clean and fresh.

Benjamin Franklin said the only things certain in life are death and taxes. Perhaps we should add dirt to the list. So who’s doing the cleaning, what solutions do they use and how often are they freshening up their homes and clothes?

Multinationals should not turn their backs on emerging market consumers. Some rebalancing toward developed markets makes sense in the near term as their relative strength improves, but it must not come entirely at the expense of investment in emerging markets.

With a wide array of pastimes available, respondents in a recent Nielsen global survey were asked to select their top three spare-time activities. While certain activities skew younger than older and vice versa, if you think technology-driven younger people don’t read anymore, think again.

The convenience offering in Asia is more relevant now than ever. But convenience stores of the future will be more than a place to pick up a beverage or quick meal. Convenience will become a way of life, and the convenience store will be a physical delivery point for an array of needs driven by the click of a mouse.

Our perception about personal finances is one factor that contributes to our confidence in the economy, which can impact our willingness to spend and save. Mirroring the rise in global consumer confidence in the third quarter, immediate spending intentions also increased, rising to 43%, up from a low of 30% in 2008 during the Great Recession.

In 1990, 57% of Southeast Asia was in poverty and access to daily necessities one could afford was not to be taken for granted. Today, so much has changed that a new niche at the high end of the affordability spectrum has emerged to fan the aspirations of consumers – premiumization.

As concerns about the environment and corporate sustainability continue to build momentum around the world, understanding the connection between sentiment and purchasing actions has never been more important. Have companies risen to meet consumer expectations?

Many FMCG sales teams in emerging markets are lacking in knowledge about the traditional trade landscape. And if you don’t know the where, what and how of your market, how likely is your strategy to be successful?

The slowing pace of Chinese economic growth underscores the country’s need to transition from an investment- and export-led growth model to one powered by consumption. But how long will that transition take? The answer is crucial to companies looking to ride what will eventually be the next extraordinary surge in consumer spending in China.

Innovation matters. In the consumer product realm, it can drive profitability and growth, and it can help companies succeed—even during tough economic times. On the opposite side of the sales counter, consumers have a strong appetite for innovation, but they’re increasingly demanding and expect more choice than ever before.

Any multinational looking for solid growth should be taking a hard look at India. In 2015, India’s economy will grow faster than China’s for the first time in 16 years. In fact, the IMF forecasts India’s GDP growth to expand by 7.5% this year and next.

Africa is on companies’ growth agenda for obvious reasons. Six of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world are in Africa, it has the world’s greatest proportion of young people, and it has a burgeoning urban population with growing demand for many goods not yet widely available, as well as the means to buy them.